


Mother Goose

by Lwoorl



Series: Baby chickens and ol' birds of prey [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Super Sons (Comics)
Genre: Age Swap, Age Swap AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, age reverse, age reverse au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-20 02:35:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17613821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: Damian Al Ghul, the 26 years old superhero known as Flamebird, wakes up in his old room at the manor, in a body that is way younger than it should be.





	Mother Goose

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea I had. I'm still not sure how exactly I'm gonna go with this story other than some key details, but I think this will be a good story.  
> It's not necessary, but I seriously suggest to read this at the same time you read part 1 of this series, as they're extremely related and will be updated together.

Damian wakes up, staring at a ceiling that isn't his.

More specifically, this is the manor's ceiling. He looks around an discovers he's in his old room.

“What-” He freezes, that is _not_ his voice.

Damian touches his neck and it's then he sees his hand. It's way too little.

...Ok. So either deaging or time travel then, he knew it had to happen to him eventually, he can deal with that.

He looks more carefully. There is a sword hanged on the wall that shouldn't be here, he took it with him when he moved; an unfinished painting resting next to the window, showing what seems like the start of a forest; there's also a hoodie thrown haphazardly on the chair, the right size for a kid. But when he looks at the desk he finds a computer, a modern one, and there's a cellphone on the nightstand next to the bed, alongside a night light. It's not his phone, this one's case is black with little white silhouettes of birds, his is blue. When he checks the date in the phone it's the same as it's supposed to be, but it doesn't tell him the year.

So, it isn't simple deaging but if there's modern technology it can't be time travel either. Alright. So it's magic altering reality or a different universe. He's going with the later, when magic changes stuff it tends to subtraction instead of add new content. He's seeing a guitar resting against the closet, he doesn't play the guitar, only ney and piano.

He tries to remember if anything happened yesterday and comes up with nothing. It was a normal day at work, he hanged out with Jon in the afternoon, had the usual night of patrol, and then went to sleep.

Damian stands from the bed and looks at himself. Indeed, he has the body he had when he was a kid. He must be somewhere between eleven and fourteen right now, it’s hard to tell.

He tries walking in a circle, no problems with equilibrium so far. He starts stretching, seeing if he has any problems with movement or if something hurts. Everything seems fine. The lower line of sight is a bit bothersome, but he will deal.

He starts inspecting the room. In the drawers of the desk he finds school notebooks, sketchbooks and materials for painting. He tries to turn on the computer, but it asks him a password; He tries with the one he used when he was younger but it doesn't work, same thing for the phone.

Opening the closet he finds clothes that should fit this body, but nothing of interest, except maybe for a hoodie with the Batman sign on in that surprises him a little. He was really reluctant to buy any superhero merchandise for a long time when he was younger, so maybe it’s a gift? There's an empty backpack, probably for school. If he remembers correctly schools don't open yet, which is good, the last thing he wants is having to relive _that_.

In the nightstand’s first drawler he finds a worn origami manual, a couple of paper flowers, and an iPod with its respective headphones, a bottle of clear nail polish and a book of art history he also owns back home, with a birthday card sticking from inside as a bookmark.

He takes the card out and reads it, it says “From: Dick, For: Dami” along with a comment about how Dick wishes him a happy thirteen birthday and how he hopes he likes the book, since he's “Such a nerd”, and a drawing of Bambi on a corner. Damian raises an eyebrow, _well, that's interesting._

In the other drawler he finds a 3ds with a handful of cartridges out of their boxes, two expensive looking watches, a keychain of a cat, an action figure of some guy with a red helmet, and a tiny, blurry picture of his mom.

He finds a knife under the pillow and some smoke pills under the mattress. When he looks under the bed he discovers something hidden behind the wooden boards. He takes it. It's a cheap porn magazine and the sight of it makes Damian roll his eyes hard enough to break his own skull, killing him instantly.

“Seriously, kid?” He mutters as he puts it back in its hiding spot.

Satisfied with his examination, he enters the room's bathroom and looks at himself in the mirror. As expected it's him when he was younger, not some other random kid.

Damian takes off the shirt, trying to see if all the scars are where they should be, and is surprised when he sees a big one right at the center of the chest. When he turns around he finds a matching one on the back.

He shouldn't have any scar this big until he's eighteen. And it isn't the same set of scars he's always had either, the position is wrong. In fact, when he checks more thoroughly he notices he has a lot of little marks that shouldn't be there, and some that should be are missing.

_So, definitely not the same person. Good to know._

What should follow now? He knows Batman exists in this universe, it wouldn't have merchandise otherwise, and it's obvious at least part of this Damian's backstory is the same as his. So, he could tell Bruce.

His face scrunches involuntarily at the mere thought. He can already imagine his father- _This kid's_ father putting Damian through interrogation, and then medical tests and then keeping him in house arrest and controlling all his movements until he goes back to his universe. No thank you, there’s a reason why he stopped working with Batman long time ago. Besides, he doesn't know if this Bruce is like his Bruce, it's obvious that at the very least Dick isn't, it wouldn’t be safe just telling the truth and trusting in someone who’s technically a literal extranger.

He will just try to collect information for now. Once he figures out how this universe works Damian will see if he can solve it himself or if he really needs to tell other people.

He washes his teeth and goes downstairs, paying close attention to any pictures or portraits on the walls as he does so. It's mostly old Wayne portraits that don't tell him much, but he knows there should be more recent ones in the living room. He's planning to move there before going to the dining room, where Alfred likely is, when-

That's Titus.

The dog stands from the couch where he was sitting and walks towards Damian, waving his tail, and it's only when Titus snuggles his muzzle against his leg that he stops standing freezed on the spot.

Damian crunches and hugs him by the neck. Titus licks his face and starts trying to bite his hair, Damian just buries his face into the animal's fur.

“I missed you.” Damian mutters as he puts his forehead against Titus’ and then scratches him under the ear, where he's always liked it. Titus rests his head against the touch and licks his fingers and Damian pets his back with the other hand. His throat feels tight all of the sudden. “Good boy, good boy, Titus. You're such a good dog, I love you.”

God. He missed him. Damian's missed his dog so, so badly.

“Good morning, Damian.” He hears a voice say. Father. No, this kid's father, not his. Bruce.

Right. Alternative universe.

He presses his face against Titus one last time before letting go of the dog. Compose yourself Damian, you aren't actually a kid.

“Good morning, Father.” He greets, managing to keep his face dry.

Bruce is wearing that _stupid_ pink bathrobe he's sure he helped Jason burn years ago. Because of course he is. Damian isn't sure if this version of him would smile, so he keeps his face neutral and Bruce doesn't seem to notice anything wrong.

He moves to the table and waits for Pennyworth to serve breakfast, Titus sits under the table and Damian keeps a hand down to pet his head. As he does so he scans the few pictures on the walls. A man with black hair that kind of looks like Dick if he was older, alongside a redhead he's almost sure must be Gordon's daughter. A picture of himself, a picture of Tim with Stephanie- That's odd. He isn't sure but he look older than 15 there, so could it be-?

His thought get derailed when another man appears. It takes him a moment to place him but-

Is that Duke?

_Duke Thomas?_

Why the _fuck_ is Duke Thomas in the manor? At the table?

He looks at Pennyworth and Bruce, but they don't seem to think anything weird of it, as Duke sits as if it was his house and him and Bruce start to eat without waiting for Selina to show up. Damian waits a moment, until Bruce raises him an eyebrow, and he realizes Selina probably doesn't live here.

He shrugs and starts to eat, discreetly continuing studying the photographs.

There are some more pictures of who he's decided is adult Dick, a couple of Dick as a kid, other three of Probably-Tim, with all his hair black and hanging out with the rest of the family like that's just normal, and then two pictures of Cassandra, who seems to be the most similar to the sister he knows. There's even a picture of Duke, so he supposes he's living here now? Somehow? For some reason?

There aren't any pictures of Jason, which is weird.

All of this is weird, really. There are some similarities but so many inconsistencies. The ages are all wrong and he has no idea how the timeline is supposed to work here, how he's supposed to act, or how to go back to his universe.

Well. At least this is going to be an interesting experience, that's for sure.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please remember I very literally feed of comments. If you don't leave any, no matter how small, I will wither and die. 💕💕💕


End file.
